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During a drive across Canada a few years ago, my buddy Steve Chalmers and I stopped at a truck stop in Indian Head, Sask.

While making a visit to the washroom, a couple of big farm boys noticed Chalmers dabbing zit cream on his face. One of the farm boys gave Chalmers a funny look and said: “What are ya doing there, pal, putting on your makeup?” And then all his big farm buddies laughed.

Not missing beat, Chalmers, who probably weighed about 130 pounds, wheeled around and said: “That’s right. What’s it to ya?”

Stunned, the big farm boy took a second to collect himself and replied: “Uh, where you from?” And Chalmers, still right in the guy’s grill, said: “Toronto. You got a problem with that?” At which point I was thinking: “Damn, here comes another beating”.

The guy then shook his head and said: “Toronto ... figures.”

And then they all walked out ... thank goodness.

Then another guy began to lecture us that we were “insane” for “mouthing off” to those boys and “bragging” that we were from Toronto. “Nobody around here likes Toronto,” he explained.

Little did I know how that was, in fact, a national obsession. Over the years, I’ve discovered that many people from many parts of Canada don’t like Toronto. Hell, there’s even a documentary called Let’s All Hate Toronto. Many folks from the Rest Of Canada take great pleasure in the fact that Toronto has many problems and we do crazy things like chase our mayor into KFC outlets and call the army when we get a lot of snow. And they take enormous pleasure whenever our sports teams, particularly the Maple Leafs, stink.

But get this, ROC: For the first time in 10 years, the Leafs have a good chance, in fact a very good chance, of being the No. 1 NHL team in Canada. The last time that happened was in the 2003-04 season, when the Leafs finished fourth in the Eastern Conference with 103 points, one point ahead of the Ottawa Senators and two ahead of the Vancouver Canucks.

More than most teams in the NHL, the Leafs are on the upswing, and the fact that they took the Boston Bruins — last season’s Stanley Cup finalists — to seven games in the playoffs, speaks volumes to how far this club has come under head coach Randy Carlyle and GM David Nonis and how far they could go. The Leafs are still (by and large) a young squad and with the additions of goaltender Jonathan Bernier and character forwards David Clarkson and Dave Bolland, as well as players like Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner coming into their own, this could be there year the Blue and White establishes itself as a true elite NHL team — and you know that’s going to stick in the craw of many a Toronto hater.

Can you imagine how fans in B.C., and Quebec and Alberta are going to feel if the Leafs are riding high in the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs and the CBC, as well as the two Canadian sports networks, lavish more attention on them than usual? There could be many separation referendums in the offing.

The Senators are on the rise and the Canucks still have a solid core, the Canadiens have added depth, the Oilers are probably some years away and nobody seems to know where the Flames and Jets are at, but there’s every reason to believe that, for the first time in a decade, the Leafs could rule Canada this season.

During the first day of training camp on Wednesday, Carlyle described his club as a team “poised to take that next step.” Hell, even Senators owner Eugene Melnyk told radio guy Bob McCown on Tuesday how impressed he was with what the Leafs did in the off-season. When asked if he was being sarcastic, Melnyk insisted that he wasn’t.

Now, throw in the fact that Nonis said the Leafs “have the greatest following in pro sports” and that Bolland, who won a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks last season, said he believes they are “not far off from where Chicago was last year”, you know it could be a very long year for the Rest of Canada.

Of course, if the Leafs lay an egg as their baseball cousins in Toronto did this season, then this could be the greatest year ever for sports fans outside the GTA.

But just imagine if the Leafs go deeper than any Canadian team in the NHL playoffs. That’s not a stretch. Now imagine the angst. I’m laughing just thinking about it.

Good chance of Leafs being No. 1 team in Canada

During a drive across Canada a few years ago, my buddy Steve Chalmers and I stopped at a truck stop in Indian Head, Sask.

While making a visit to the washroom, a couple of big farm boys noticed Chalmers dabbing zit cream on his face. One of the farm boys gave Chalmers a funny look and said: “What are ya doing there, pal, putting on your makeup?” And then all his big farm buddies laughed.

Not missing beat, Chalmers, who probably weighed about 130 pounds, wheeled around and said: “That’s right. What’s it to ya?”

Stunned, the big farm boy took a second to collect himself and replied: “Uh, where you from?” And Chalmers, still right in the guy’s grill, said: “Toronto. You got a problem with that?” At which point I was thinking: “Damn, here comes another beating”.